Unlucky Dee deserved more, says Jakubiak

Maintain the standards of the weekend performance at Hibs and Dundee can get their Championship campaign back on track.

That’s the view of striker Alex Jakubiak after he came through his first 90 minutes for the Dark Blues after signing in the summer.

The former Watford man gave watching Dees a glimpse of what he’ll have to offer this season but insists there is plenty more to come.

And Dens gaffer James McPake will also hope there are more improvements to come from his side as focus shifts back to league action.

For this was an improvement from the Dark Blues after the debacle of the opening halfhour at Ayr United the previous week.

Shipping poor goals had been a constant on the road this term – 15 in the previous four matches – but the addition of experienced defender Liam Fontaine seemed to settle the backline.

And they gave up few real chances to the P r e m i e r s h i p ’s fourthplaced side on their own patch.

The one time they did get caught saw Kevin Nisbet spin defender Lee Ashcroft and play in Jamie Murphy down the left.

The Rangers loanee left the trailing defence in his wake and made no mistake with the finish, the ball clipping off the far post on it’s way into the net.

Going forward, Dundee didn’t have much to show for their efforts during the 90 minutes, a single Paul

McGowan header that was easily saved was their only attempt that was on target.

H o w e v e r, Jakubiak believes performances like the one at Easter Road will take the Dark Blues up the league table when the y come up against Championship defences.

“From our performance I felt we deserved more from the game,” he said.

“I think we probably outworked them off the ball but defensively one slip in the middle of the park cost us the goal.

“We could have stopped it, it’s just minor mistakes. It’s not like tragic things, it’s things we can work on.

“In the final third we maybe didn’t create enough to get a goal.

“Disappointed, frustrated but there were lots of positives to take from the game.

“It was much improved from the Ayr game. That was the first thing the gaffer said to us after the game.

“Obviously we were disappointed with the result but we’re more disappointed with this result than the Ayr result because of the actual performance.

“We set ourselves a benchmark, we have set the standard now and we need to maintain that and that will bring us results going forward.

“It’s still early in the season and we just need to take the positives from this game and negatives.”

Things might have been different had Jakubiak’s second-half strike stood rather than being disallowed for offside.

The 24-year-old wheeled away in celebration after knocking the ball into an empty net when it rebounded off the bar from his own close-range effort.

At the time Jakubiak protested but having seen the replay of the incident, accepts the r e f e r e e ’s assistant made the right call, even if it denied him a goal on his full debut.

“I started in an offside position from the initial throw but I thought their defender headed it on but when I saw it back it came off Lee Ashcroft, so it was a good spot by the linesman,” he said.

Jakubiak signed for the Dens Park club back in August but a troublesome ankle injury picked up in the first match of preseason against Peterhead kept him out of action until last week.

Coming off the bench at Somerset Park in the final half-hour gave him his first taste of action in a Dundee shirt.

That one may have ended bitterly but the frontman is delighted to be back out on the pitch helping the side.

And he’s adamant there are far better days to come for the Dark Blues.

Asked if there is more to come from him personally, Jakubiak replied: “100%.

“I’m still not fully fit. Ma t c h sharpness and things I know I’ve got, like a turn of pace, will come in time. I didn’t think I’d last the 90 minutes and I’ll feel it in the morning.

“But I’ ll take it as a positive. It’s been hard to watch and not be involved but I’ve been working hard to get back fit.” not the few